French Socialist Mayor Faces Backlash Over Eid al-Adha Message to Muslims

"Sami Damergy, mayor of Mantes-la-Ville, presents all his wishes to the Muslim community of Mantes-la-Ville and wishes health and serenity to all," the mayor had posted on his Facebook account. This message is not to the liking of the members of his party. In an open letter to the mayor, they denounce "a break of the municipality with the constitutional principles of secularism and indivisibility of the Republic".

"In a secular Republic, neither the State, nor the Region, nor the Department, nor the Municipality celebrate a religious holiday. If you persisted in wanting to replace the principles of secularism with those of ecumenism, you would then, for lack of creating discrimination, have to present your wishes to each of the celebrations of each of the religions," they hammer. "You have, among other things, chosen not to present the mayor’s wishes to the Catholic community on the feast of the Assumption."

"We want to believe that the clientelist drifts that we have observed throughout the electoral campaign have ended with your election on July 3 last and that you will henceforth have at heart to become the mayor of all the inhabitants without distinction," hopes Pierre Sztulman, deputy federal first secretary of the PS, who invites Mr. Damergy to avoid this kind of publication in the future.

The mayor’s reaction did not wait. "The PS wants to stir up controversy on issues where there is no need to be. It wants to exist but in this approach, it is going on the ground of the National Rally," reacts the entourage of the elected official. "In the message that was published, we are not celebrating Eid, we are wishing a holiday," specifies this close to the elected official.